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ADDRESS 



ANTI-SLAVERY CHRISTIANS 



UNITED STATES 



PRINTED BY JOHN A. GRAY, No. 97 CLIFF, COR. FRANKFORT ST. 

18 5 2. 



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AN ADDRESS 



ANTI-SLAYERT CHRISTIANS 



OF THE UNITED STATES 



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Friends and Brethren :— We address you in behalf of the American 
and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society. Approving of the principles avowed 
and the measures pursued by that association, we beg leave to submit to 
you the considerations which peculiarly entitle it at the present juncture 
to the active sympathy and effectual aid of the friends of the anti-slavery 



cause 



"While the advocates of constitutional government in Europe are lament- 
ing a wide-spread reaction in behalf of despotic authority, the friends of the 
inalineable rights of man behold with grief and mortification a similar reac- 
tion in our own Republic, in behalf of a despotism more inexorable, and 
more hostile to human progress and happiness, than any which afflicts the 
eastern continent. In both instances, the reaction is more apparent than 
real. Opinions in favor of human liberty remain the same, but the expres- 
sion of them has to a greater or less degree been stifled by a sudden, mighty, 
and combined effort of capitalists and politicians, aided to a great extent by 
ecclesiastical influence, and in each case accompanied with violated pledges 
and revolting perfidy. 

In our own community, the cause of Christian morals has been deeply 
wounded, and a new impulse given to infidelity, by the various modes 
adopted by merchants, politicians, and divines to conciliate the slaveholding 
interest. Doctrines have been advanced on high authority respecting the 
supremacy of human laws, which, if true, convict the "noble army of mar- 
tyrs," including the blessed apostles themselves, of being but felons and 
traitors. Public men, and even public meetings, have professed in unquali- 
fied terms their ignorance of a higher law than the Federal Constitution. 
Rich men among us have given of their abundance to reduce to slavery the 



fugitive from bondage; and lawyers, heretofore regarded as reputable, have 
not shrunk from taking reward against the innocent, and prostituting a 
noble profession to the service of the slave-catcher. The sympathy here- 
tofore fell for the victim of oppression who had escaped from his prison- 
house, and the repugnance manifested to aid in his arrest, have Keen de- 
nounced as "prejudices to be conquered;" and lips which once uttered 
noble word- in behalf of human rights, have been busily employed in pro- 
claiming to republicans the duty of catching slaves. Nay, some professed 
ambassadors of the merciful Jesus have announced from their pulpits 
that He has sanctioned the conversion into articles of merchandise of 
beings charged with no crime, made a little lower than the angels, and 
redeemed by his own blood ! A law lias been passed for the recovery of 
fugitive slaves, which, for its cool violation of all the received and ac- 
knowledged principles of judicial justice, for its outrages on humanity, and 
for its arbitrary requirement of every citizen to assist in a slave-hum when 
commanded by an official menial, is unexampled in the legislation of any 
Christian country. Yet an active agency in the execution of this most 
detestable law has been made, even by professed ministers of the gospel, a 
test of Christian obedience. 

The success which has thus far attended the combined effort to which we 
have referred, has been in a great measure owing to the fancied security 
of the North and the simulated violence of the South. 

The war against Mexico was waged for the acquisition of slave territory, 
and great was the fear felt by the North that human bondage would be 
extended to the shores of the Pacific. No less than fourteen States pro- 
tested, through their Legislatures, against any enlargement of the area of 
slavery. The voice of Daniel Webster was raised to warn his countrymen 
of the impending calamity, and to approve and enforce the great principles 
announced by the Free Soil Convention at Buffalo. The innate love of 
liberty was awakened throughout the North, and its representatives in 
Congress bowed to the will of their constituents; and all the devices of the 
slaveholders to procure territorial governments for the conquered territo- 
ries, allow -lavery of a portion of the inhabitahts, were defeated. 
Soon, the Wilm •, applied, with the assistance of Daniel Webster, 
to Oregon, secured that important territory to freedom. This was followed 
by the joyful intelligence that New-Mexico and California had both adopted 
State Constitutions prohibiting slavery. A shout of victory ascended from 
the North, and the greatness of the triumph was supposed to be attested 
by the waitings of desperation uttered by the slaveholders. It was at this 
moment of fancied security that the capitalists and politicians contrived a 
panic about the Union, and traders in Southern votes and merchandise devised 
the patriotic work of saving the Union, by surrendering the territories of 
New-Mexico and Qtah to the slaveholders, and making slave-hunting a 
national duty, under regulations of extraordinary cruelty. The work was 
hastened on by the mo-; astounding treachery, supported by the audacious 
assumption that the law of physical geography and Asiatic scenerj rendered 



it physically impossible that any portion of the vast region conquered from 
Mexico could ever he trodden by slaves. 

A dissolution of the Union could have no other effect on the slaveholding 
interest than to break down those bulwarks which the Federal Government, 
from its beginning, has been busy in raising around it, and to rouse all 
beyond the slave territory into active hostility. But although the Union 
was in little danger, the work of saving it was no less profitable than patri- 
otic, as it tended to prevent the political and commercial non-intercourse 
threatened by the South ; and the proceedings of Union-saving committees 
were found a convenient mode of advertising for the trade and the votes of 
the slaveholders. In this manner an influence was exerted which, aided by 
the supposed security of the North, led to the so-called Compromise, in 
which the fruits of the recent victory were all thrown away, with the 
single exception of the anti-slavery Constitution of California. Something 
was indeed gained to the character of the national capital, by prohibiting 
the importation of slaves for sale, but nothing to the cause of humanity, 
since the traffic was only transferred from "Washington to Alexandria. In 
return for the Californian Constitution, which Congress could not have 
prevented and did not dare to annul, we have had the prodigious enlarge- 
ment of the slave State of Texas, the abandonment of New-Mexico and 
Utah to slavery, and the enactment of the Fugitive Bill, as drafted by the 
slaveholders themselves, forced through the House of Bepresentatives with- 
out discussion, and so intensely odious and wicked, that not even personal 
interest nor party discipline could induce one half of the members of the 
Lower House to incur the infamy of giving it their votes. 

The political parties, having thus conciliated the slaveholders, entered upon 
a new race between themselves for power and office, and mutually agreed 
to prevent, as far as possible, all interference in the race by the avowed 
friends of human rights. The anti-slavery agitation was to be suppressed 
at all hazards ; and every man who expressed sympathy for the oppressed, 
or indignation against slave-hunts, was to be driven from either party. 
By virtue of this compact, similar in its spirit to that which in Europe is 
smothering every aspiration for freedom, all who protest against the op- 
pression of millions of native-born Americans are to be deemed disturbers 
of the public peace, while the powers of slaveholders, like those of kings, 
are to be regarded as held by the grace of God, and too sacred to be dis- 
cussed or questioned. 

It is under these circumstances, painful, mortifying, and unexpected, that 
we address ourselves to the Anti-Slavery Christians of the United States. 
The whole question of the duty of opposition to slavery rests on the sin- 
fulness of reducing innocent men and women, and their children after them, 
to articles of merchandise. If human beings may be held as chattels, they 
are, of course, legitimate subjects of traffic, and the African, no less than 
the American slave-trade, is a commendable and a Christian commerce. 
The lawfulness of slavery in no degree depends on the complexion of its 
victims, since the slavery alleged to be recognized in the Scriptures was 



unquestionably thai of Asiatics and Europeans. None of onr clerical cham- 
pions of the institution ever venture to dwell on its accordance with the 
attribul Deity, or the i if the gospel. On what ground, 

then, is the moral vindication of American slavery rested? On the alleged 
fact that God permitted the Jews to hold certain heathen as slaves, and 
that, consequently, it cannot be morally wrong in Americans to hold their 
own countrymen, and even their fellow-Christians, and often their own 
children, brothers and sisters, as Without admitting the premises, 

we utterly deny the conclusion drawn from them. The Creator and Judge 
of all men, infinite in wi ;dom, goodness, justice, and power, selects his own 
modes of maintaining his moral government, and of inflicting d< 
punishment; and none may say unto him, "What doest thou?" To him 
me, and none may execute it in his name, except by his 
appointment. Ee sawfit to destroy by water a guilty world; but will it 
be inferred from this act of divine sovereignty that saints have a moral right 
to drown sinners? For th< ir extreme wickedness, the seven nations of Pal- 
estine were doomed to extermination, and the -lews were ordered to take- 
possession of their land, and to put all the inhabitants, men, women, and 
children, to the sword; to make no covenant with them, nor show mercy 
unto them. Does tins commission to the Jews confer upon us similar rights 
in other lands? The nations adjoining Palestine were idolatrous and other- 
wise excessively depraved; and we are assured by pro-slavery divines that 
God, by an express revelation, gave the Jews the privilege of buying and 
holding their inhabitants as slaves ; and hence we are taught that, w it limit 
milar revelation to ourselves, we arc authorized to keep our own 
brethren in bonds, and to, reduce them to the condition of beasts of burden, 
in defiance of the express commands of God to do justice and to love mercy, 
and to do to others as we would they should do unto us. We utterly deny 
the authorized existence of hereditary chattel slavery in the Jewish common- 
wealth, such slavery being absolutely forbidden by the universal emancipa- 
tion proclaimed on each returning Jubilee. But so far as relates to the 
lawfulness i n slavery, it is wholly immaterial whether the Jews 

held slaves or not, since it 19 admitted by all that if they did, they acted by 
virtue of a md express permission from God, while it is equally 

admit led thai UO such permission has been given to us. If American 
slavery be sanctioned by the religion of Jesus Christ, then, indeed, is that 
religion an inexplicable riddle, both tolerating and forbidding every species 
of cruelty, injustice, and oppression. 

Friends and brethren, we believe before God thai American slavery is 

I in his sight, and utterly irreconcilable with the holy and merciful 

precepts of the gospel of his Son. Hence, we believe it morally wrong to 

render any voluntary aid in upholding an iniquitous system, or in reducing 

a fellow-man to bom 1 

We are continually told thai the Federal Governmenl lias nothing to do 
with slavery, and ye1 froma veryearlj period its powers have been exerted 
to protect to i '-.tend, and to perpetuate the institution. It is the object of 



the A. and F. A. S. Society to effect, as far as possible, an entire divorce of 
the Federal Government from the subject of slavery. In relation to the 
constitutional powers of the Federal Government, we indulge in no opinions 
more ultra than such as have been avowed by Daniel Webster himself. 
With him we hold that Congress is fully authorized to abolish and to forbid 
slavery in its own territories, to suppress the commerce in slaves between 
the States, and to refuse admission into the Union of new slave States. We 
also cordially concur in his "judgment," expressed in his speech in the Sen- 
ate, on the 7th March, 1850, that the Constitution does not confer on Con- 
gress the right to legislate respecting fugitive slaves. In accordance with 
these views, the A. and F. A. S. Society aims at delivering the General 
Government from all entangling alliance with slavery, and they desire to 
effect this much-desired deliverance by inducing the people to select for 
their representatives in Congress such men only as will resolutely refuse to 
legislate in behalf of slavery. 

But as Anti-Slavery Christians, our duties in regard to this horrible and 
sinful system extend beyond the jurisdiction of the Federal Government, 
and reach even to the slaveholders themselves. True Christianity is an 
aggressive religion. "Go ye into all the world," was the command of its 
divine founder. Can it be our duty to send missionaries into China and 
Hindostan, to rebuke the sins of their inhabitants, and to prostrate in the 
dust their altars and their gods, and yet to observe the silence of the grave 
in regard to a sin which, in our own country, reduces millions to ignorance, 
degradation, and wretchedness, and, by denying them the lamp of life, keeps 
them in virtual heathenism ? Convinced that slavery is a sin, we not only 
have the right, but are bound by the obligations of Christianity, to oppose 
it, and to use all lawful means for its abolition, whether in our own or other 
countries. If slavery be not sinful, then we know not what degree of cru- 
elty and injustice amounts to a violation of the law of God. 

A combination of circumstances has led many of our clergy at the North, 
and nearly all at the South, to regard slavery, with all its inseparable abomi- 
nations, as an exception from the Christian code. We must love all men as 
ourselves, with the exception of such as are black. With the same excep- 
tion, we must do good unto all men, and exercise justice and mercy to all. 
We must give Bibles to men of all lands and all races, except to about three 
millions of our countrymen. The laws must protect the marriage tie, 
except in the case of these same millions. Supplications must be made for 
all men, except those among us who are of all men the most miserable. In 
short, as Christians, we must rebuke every sin except that giant sin of our 
nation which involves the perpetration of almost every other. But it is 
affirmed, by way of apology, that we at the North are free from this sin, 
and have therefore no concern with it. Were the assertion true, the apology 
would be equally valid for not attempting to overthrow the idolatry of the 
Hindoos, or the delusions of the false prophet, and for recalling all our mis- 
sionaries to the heathen. But unfortunately the assertion is utterly desti- 
tute of truth. Probably not a sermon is preached in our large city churches 



which is not listened to by slaveholders ; probably not a congregation is 
assembled in the free States which does not include persons directly or indi- 
rectly interested in slavery. JI<>w many of our sons are constantly remov- 
ing to tlic South, and becoming slaveholders I What numbers of our 
daughters are mistresses on Blave plantations! How many Northern cler- 
gymen now descant from Southern pulpits on the divine rights of slave- 
In.!.!,!--! And shall we be told that Northern Christians have no cause to 
raise their voices againsl a sin which is daily corrupting their sons, their 
daughters, their politicians, and their clergy '. Alas! there is a mighty con- 
spiracy, prompted by selfish considerations, to suppress all discussion of this 
sin, all exhibition of its withering influence on human virtue and happiness. 
We have great national societies for disseminating Christian truth; but no 

reader of their tracts and Sunday-school 1 ks learns from their pages that 

anful to rob black men of all their rights; to compel them to labor 
without wages; to deny them the Holy Scriptures; and to send fathers, 
mothers, and children to market, like cattle and bales of cotton. All other 
sins are in these publications faithfully and freely rebuked; but every 
allusion to this greal and all-pervading sin of our nation is carefully ex- 
cluded. Occasionally, a tract or religious biography from the other side of 
the water is deemed worthy of republication ; but it is first submitted to a 
process significantly termed " cottonizing," and which consists in carefully 
expunging every expression condemnatory of human bondage. The A. and 
I-'. A. S. Society, utterly repudiating such a time-serving view of Christian 
duty, aims at convincing the hearts and understandings of all, both at the 
North and at the South, of the sinfulness of American slavery. 

It must, however, be understood, that this Society directs its labors to the 
abolition of caste as well as of slavery. We have among ourselves a popu- 
lation, each individual of which is a swift witness of our cruelty and unchris- 
tian conduct. AVhile protesting against the injustice and op] iression prac- 
tised by our Southern brethren, let us not forget the deep guilt of our 
Northern community in their treatment of the free people of color. No 
casuistry can reconcile the scorn and contumely poured upon these people 
with the precepts of the gospel of Christ; <>f that gospel which makes love 
for each other the badge of the Redeem ■•'- disciples. It is unnecessary to 
dwell on the privation-, and disabilities to which our colored citizen- are 
subjected. When the professed ministers of Christ refuse to sit in the 
council- of tbc church with their reverend brethren not colored like them- 
selves, and when colored candidates for the ministry are excluded from theo- 
logical seminaries BOlely on account of the tincture of their -kin, it is not 
surprising that other- should be a- regardless of the temporal, as certain of 
of the spiritual welfare of men to whom Cod has been 
ive a dark complexion. When the pious colored youth is denied 
the usual facilities for qualifying him to minister to the di-ea-.- ot the souls 

of Ins people, who shall rigidly condemn the professors of the healing art 

for denying similar facilities for mini the diseases of the body, by 

excluding colored stud a their lecture-rooms i Surely, the ruffians 



•who insult and abuse the colored man, and the demagogues who, availing 
themselves of a popular prejudice, deny him equality before the law, have 
high examples to extenuate, if not to justify their pride and cruelty. In 
striving to secure to our colored people the rights freely accorded to all 
others, and thus giving them the means of maintaining themselves by honest 
industry, of developing and improving their talents, and of studying the 
things which belong to their peace, the Society is pursuing an object in 
perfect accordance with Christian benevolence, and one that must commend 
itself to every unprejudiced mind. 

In our opposition to slavery and caste, we desire to use no instruments of 
unsanctified temper ; nor have we any wish to conceal those we do use. 
Believing it sinful to compel an innocent man to serve as a slave, we must 
refuse to be partakers of other men's sins; and hence, under no circum- 
stances can we aid in catching or securing fugitive slaves, whatever may 
be the penalties of our disobedience to a sinful act of Congress. It will be 
the endeavor of the A. and F. A. S. Society to dissuade all from joining in 
slave-hunts, as a palpable violation of Christian duty. Setting aside the 
moral turpitude of slavery, the Fugitive Slave Act comprises a mass of in- 
iquity in no degree required by the provisions of the Constitution. The Act 
points out the mode of seizing and surrendering, not slaves, but persons 
owing service or labor, and is therefore applicable to white apprentices, and 
to persons under contract to labor for a limited time. Apprentices have 
already been surrendered under it, and there is no reason why others, who 
are alleged to have hired themselves out for a month or a year, may not be. 
To illustrate the intense injustice of this Act, let us suppose a young man to 
leave his father's home, in Boston or New-York, for California. After the 
lapse of a year or two, he returns. While pursuing an honest calling, he is 
arrested in the street, on the charge of stealing — the stereotype charge in 
such cases, to prevent resistance — and hurried before a Commissioner. An 
affidavit made in California, and there certified by a judge, is read, setting 
forth that the prisoner is the apprentice of the deponent. Immediately, 
without being permitted to produce any testimony to rebut a document 
which the law declares shall be conclusive, he is put in irons, and sent 
on board a vessel departing for the Pacific, without being permitted to take 
leave of his parents, wife, or children. Do we revolt at the mere supposi- 
tion of such barbarity ? But does the barbarity and injustiue depend on the 
complexion of the victim ? That the Constitution requires the perpetration 
of such horrible outrages on justice and humanity, is denied even by Daniel 
Webster, the great champion of the law, since he proposed giving the 
accused the benefit of a trial by jury. We should be faithless to the cause 
not only of Christianity, but of civil liberty, did we not oppose an enact- 
ment so detestably atrocious ; one which establishes a title to property in 
an intelligent, accountable, immortal being, on testimony which in no civil- 
ized country would support the claim to a dog. 

The cruelty and heartlessness attending the execution of this law, the 
extraordinary zeal which our rich men and politicians manifest in its behalf, 



8 

the sanction given to it by popular divines, and the infidel sneers which 
many of our party presses have deemed it expedient to cast on the advocates 
of "ahigherlaw" than an act of Congress, have unitedly exerted a most 
disastrous influence on the tone of public morals. One of the most striking 
inces of this influence is the vile attempt made in Pennsylvania, under 
the special countenance of the Federal Administration, to convert resist- 
ance to the execution of the Fugitive Act into the capital crime of high 
treason. A fugitive, who had been arrested at Boston, was liberated by 
some of his colored friends, who, finding the door of his room in the court- 
house open, hustled the officer, and >ecured the escape of the intended 
victim. Not a weapon had been provided, not a wound was given ; yet the 
rescue was boldly proclaimed by Mr. Webster, Secretary of State, to be an 
act of treason, a levying of war againsl the CTnited States! 

On the 11th September, 1851, a more serious affair occurred. An . 
party, headed by a deputy-marshal, attempted to arr aves 

in Pennsylvania. The fugitives, aided by some others, stood on their 
defense. The claimant, a Maryland slaveholder, Avas shot in the affray, 
and the fugitives escaped. Five days after, the Governor of Maryland was 
officially informed, from the "Department of State," that "the District 
Attorney was specially instructed to ascertain whether the tacts would 
make out the crime of treason against the United States, and, if so, to take 
prompt measures to secure all concerned for trial for that offense." Faith- 
fully and zealously were the orders from Washington obeyed. Incredible as 
it may seem, a grand jury was found with consciences sufficiently pliant to 
present no less than seventy-eight indictments against thirty-nine persons, 
alleged to have been concerned in the riot. All were indicted for treason, 
as well as for various crimes of interior grade. 

Let it be recollected that the Constitution, to prevent tyrannical prosecu- 
tions for constructive treason, declares: "Treason against the United States 
shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their 
enemies, giving them aid ami comfort." It may well be supposed that the 
Government selected for the commencement ofthe prosecutions the strongest 
case ofthe thirty-nine. On the 25th November, Castner Hanway, a white 
man of irreproachable character, "was placed at the bar, charged, on the 
oaths of the grand jury, that on the 11th September, 1851, U HE DID 
WIOKEDLl AND TBAITOROl SLY I.i;vv WAS AGAINST THE UNITED Si ATES." The 

only offense proved against him was, that he was near the scene of action, 
unarmed, and on horseback, and that, when ordered by the deputy-marshal 
to aid him in capturing the fugitives, like an honest man, he declined render- 
ing the required assistance. The judge charged the jury that 
"TheCourl feel bound to say, that tiny do not think the transaction with 
which the pri oner is elm — , d with being connected, rise> to the dignity o! 

treason or of levying war;" and a verdict of not guilty was returned without 

hesitation. Thisverdicl led the Government to abandon all the indictments 
lor treason, among which was one againsl Samuel Williams, a colored man, 
for levying war against the United States, by giving notice to the fugitives 



9 

that a warrant had teen issued for their arrest ! But still an effort was 
made to punish him for this act of benevolence, and he was tried on an 
indictment for misdemeanor, under the Fugitive Act, for obstructing the 
arrest by his notice, and for which, if convicted, he was liable to a fine not 
exceeding one thousand dollars, and imprisonment not exceeding six months. 
The trial by jury was again vindicated by a verdict of acquittal. All the 
prosecutions were then abandoned in despair ; and, if the gallows and the 
prisons were denied their intended victims, the Government could at least 
beseech the slaveholders to accept the will for the deed, especially as it is 
said no less than seventy thousand dollars were expended on these prosecu- 
tions from the public treasury. 

In connection with the Fugitive Act, we ask your attention to the 
renewed efforts to transport the free people of color to Africa. "We freely 
acknowledge not only the right of these people to seek a more favorable 
home than this country affords, but also the right and duty of others to afford 
them, according to circumstances, the aid they may desire for this purpose. 
But the American Colonization Society proffers them undesired aid, and some 
colonizationists recommend their removal to Africa, as rendering slavery 
more secure and more profitable, and relieving the country of a population 
which they represent as a " nuisance." To induce them to accept the proffered 
aid, the oppressions they here suffer are excused and often justified, while 
attempts to render their condition here more tolerable, by promoting their 
intellectual improvement and enlarging the field of their industry, are often 
discountenanced. In short, the whole tendency of the Society is, by ren- 
dering their condition here intorerable, to extort their consent to go to 
Africa. "We all know the extreme anxiety of the slaveholders to expel the 
free blacks from within their borders. Says a late South Carolina paper,* 
recommending the State " to ship her free negroes to another land :" " The 
very condition and the circumstances that surround the free negro are in 
direct hostility and diametrically opposed to the institution of slavery.'''' Mr. 
"Webster, in his memorable speech of 7th March, 1850, adroitly recommended 
himself to his new patrons by declaring that eighty millions had been 
received from the sale of lands ceded by Virginia; and that, "if Virginia 
and the South see fit to adopt any proposition to eelieve themselves from 
the free people of color among them, they have my free consent that the 
Government shall pay them any sum of money out of the proceeds which 
may be adequate to the purpose." And again : " If any gentleman from the 
Sourn shall propose a scheme of colonization to be carried on by this Go- 
vernment upon a large scale, for the transportation of her colored people 
to any colony or any place in the world, I should be quite disposed to incur 
almost any degree of expense to accomplish the object." Of course, the 
Secretary of State is willing to tax the whole republic to any amount not 
exceeding eighty millions, not to benefit the free people of color, not to 
civilize and Christianize Africa, but to banish to any part of the world hun- 



Greenfield Mountaineer. 



10 

dreds of thousands of his own countrymen, solely and avowedly to relieve 
I be slaveholders, and give additional security and permanence to the system 
of human bondage ; and this gentleman is now the public champion of the 

American Colonization Society. 
We have in our country a population, free and bond, of between three 

and four millions, who, merely on account of their complexion, are treated 
with an almost total disregard of that justice and humanity enjoined by the 
religion we profess. The A. and F. A. S. Society are laboring to secure to 
them that Christian treatment to which the gospel of Ohrisi entitles them. 
In this work of mercy, they invoke, and have a right to invoke, the counte- 
nance and aid of the Church. We are not unconscious that the Church has, 
in pasl aires, been frequently faithless to ber high mis-ion of cultivating peace 
and good-will among men; and he is but little acquainted with passing 
who i- ignorant that the American Church is at this moment one of 
the strongest buttresses of American caste and slavery. Would we, then, 
if we could, destroy the Church? God forbid. If the world is so full of 
sin and wretchedness notwithstanding the Church, what would it be with- 
out a Church? The answer may be found in the cruelties and abomina- 

of paganism. But the ministers of Christ are men of like passions 
with others, and liable, like others, to be swayed by popular opinion and 
motives of self-interest. It is possible many of the clergy have not reflected 
that, in supporting and vindicating slavery, they are lending their counte- 
nance to an institution which outrages every moral precept they inculcate 
from the pulpit. What answer will the Northern clerical slave-catcher, 
or the Southern reverend slave-breeder and slave-trader, return to the 
inspired question, "He that loveth not bis brother, whom he hath seen, 
how can he love Cod, whom he hath not seen?" Surely it is worthy of 
remembrance that, at the day of final account, the Judge will consider as 

o himself both tin' kindness and the cruelty shown to the least of his 
brethren. 

We are constantly reminded that the Church is the great instrument of 
moral reform. Most gratefully do we allow that the precepts of the gospel 
are sufficient for all the moral - of man. "Do to others as you 

would they should do unto you,'' is a law which, if obeyed, would of itself 
banish slavery and oppression from the lace of the earth. But unhappily 
the Church, or at least a portion of ber ministers, have not always applied 
the precept- of t lie gospel to existing and popular sins. It is certainly no 
exaggerated statement, that not one sermon in a thousand delivered at the 
North contains the slightesl allusion to the duties of Christians towards the 
I population; while at the South multitudes of the clergy are as 
deeply involved in the iniquities of slavery as their hearers. It is no libel 
on the great body of our Northern clergy to say that, in regard to the 
wrongs of the colored people, instead of performing the part of the good 
Samaritan, their highest merit consists in following the example of the 
priesl ami Levite, and passing by on the other side, without inflicting new 
injuries on their wounded brother. But we rejoice to know that there are 



11 

ministers of Christ among ns, and not a few, to whom these remarks are 
wholly inapplicable ; men who pray and preach and labor against slavery 
and caste, and thus adorn the doctrine of God their Saviour. We rejoice 
also to know that such ministers are appreciated and honored by Christians 
abroad of every name. The clergy of England, Scotland, and Ireland decline 
admitting into their pulpits clergymen from this country holding what they 
deem heretical doctrines ; but can they exclude any for a fouler heresy than 
that which abrogates all the Christian precepts of justice and mercy in their 
application to colored men ? We trust our friends in Great Britain will not 
weaken our hands, and strengthen the pro-slavery influence of our churches, 
by overlooking, in their reception of American clergymen, the course they 
have pursued at home on the subject of slavery. They may be perfectly 
assured that the American clergyman who, abroad, is too dignified to be 
questioned as to his opinions on human bondage, is at home too patriotic 
to offer any vigorous opposition to the " peculiar institution" of his country. 

We have thus frankly stated the objects of the American and Foreign 
Anti-Slavery Society, and confidently ask if they are not objects worthy to 
be pursued by rational, accountable, Christian men? Nay, we go farther, 
and ask, has not a Society pursuing such objects valid claims on the coun- 
tenance and generous aid of every philanthropist and every Christian in our 
country ? 

Hostility to slavery has frequently been associated with various objects 
of political and moral reform. It is natural it should be so, since the same 
love for our neighbor which revolts at his oppression, seeks to advance his 
general welfare. But experience has fully proved that associated action 
cannot be efficiently maintained in behalf of various plans, respecting which 
the individuals associated entertain diverse opinions. Hence the A. and F. 
A. S. Society, without passing any judgment on other proposed reforms, 
confine their efforts in their associated capacity to the abolition of caste and 
slavery, leaving to their members individually the full and entire liberty 
of advocating and promoting, in such way as they may think proper, any 
other reforms, moral or political. We believe every man is bound to exer- 
cise the elective franchise in the fear of God; but while we shall ever rejoice 
in the election of virtuous rulers who will do justice and love mercy, it is 
not the province of the Society to recommend particular individuals for the 
suffrages of their fellow-citizens. 

It is consoling to us to know that, in the sentiments we have expressed, 
we enjoy the sympathy of almost all without the limits of our own country 
who bear the Christian name. A vast multitude on our own soil hold the 
same sentiments, and, did they act with one heart and one voice, would 
soon triumph over the prejudice which supports caste, would array the 
Church on the side of mercy, and rescue the Federal Government from its 
unholy and unconstitutional alliance with slavery. But unfortunately the 
sympathies of this multitude, not being concentrated in action and counsel, 
are in no small degree powerless for good. The anti-slavery host has been 



12 

divided, and of oourse enfeebled, by conflicting opinions on topics not im- 
mediately affecting the colored man. For the Bake of the slave, for the 
prosperity of the country, for the good ! tinrch herself, we earnestly 

desire the union of all abolitionists, and their harmonious action in behalf 
of their colored brethren. We ask all who approve the opinions we have 
expressed, to give vitality and energy to those opinions, by aiding the A. 
and F. A. s. Society in disseminating and enforcing them. 

c opinion is in this country the controller of legislation. Hence, at 
one period a traffic in African savages was enconraged by law, as an enlight- 
ened and legitimate commerce. At a later period, all but two States were 
desirous to abandon it, and. as a compromise, Congress \\. d from 

abolishing it until after twenty years. At a still later period, a commerce 
which had been guaranteed by the Federal Constitution was, by an act of 
Congress, denounced a- pika< v. Public opinion now, acting through the 
legislature, holds him a felon who brings to our shores for sale a native 
African, while we have just seen a citizen tried for his life because he 
declined to assist a slave-catcher in reducing to slavery a native American. 
To buy and sell Africans is wicked, base, and detestable; to buy and sell 
colored Americans is in perfect accordance with the mo>t exalted position 
in both Stat.' and Church. In the city of New- York, we have seen "men 
of great stakes," merchant-princes, and others, lavishing courtesies on the 
most reckless and violent champions of slavery when they honored them 
with their presence; and we have seen these same gentlemen giving aid 
and comfort to the slave-catcher, without losing their place in polite 

society. 

Mosl certainly public opinion on these subjects is unsound, and ought to 
med. Very many of our clergj and their hearers need to be re- 
minded that the commands of God have no reference to the color of a man's 
skin, hut that ail are equally entitled to receive, and are equally bound to 
render, the justice and henevolence enjoined by Him who is the common 
Father of us all. Christians generally are to be warned not to be partakers 
of Other men's sins towards the colored race. The cruelty of State and 
Federal legislation is to be exposed ; the influence of th ationscheme 

in exasperating the prejudice againsl our colored brethren i> to be demon- 
strated, and the public is to be fully instructed in the moral, social, and 
political evil- resulting from slavery and & 

I!ut how are these great ends i aplished '. Individual effort can 

do but little. In the presenl age, the press is the great lever by which the 
world is moved, but it can he employed to a great extent only through tin 
united pecuniary contributions of many. The influence of a private Abo- 
litionist can rarely reach beyond a contracted neighborhood ; but as a mem- 
ber of the A. and F. A. S. Society, and a donor to its funds, lie may address 
thousands. The National Era was established at Washington with funds 
supplied by the Society, and sinoe repaid; and it now weekly addresses 
anti-slavery truth to seventeen thousand subscribers. The Society greatly 
needs a periodical of its own, but ii> present funds are insufficient for the 



13 

establishment of one. Treatises on various branches of this great subject 
are constantly offered to the Society, but it lacks the means of giving them 
to the public through the press. Intelligent, well-informed lecturers are 
wanted to awaken public attention, to collect popular assemblies, and to 
enlist the sympathies of those whose avocations deny them the opportunity 
of reading anti-slavery publications. Agents are desired to aid in the for- 
mation of auxiliary societies. Editors and authors are to be enlisted in the 
cause ; and frequently, information and statistics, to be collected at much 
expense of time and labor, are needed for the use of members of Congress 
and other public men. The instrumentalities for influencing public opinion 
and correcting prejudices and erroneous statements are manifold, but they 
can be wielded only by associated funds and labors. 

A crisis has arrived in which the friends of the anti-slavery cause should 
reorganize and act together. Unless they do this, their efforts to circum- 
scribe the area of slavery, to break the fetters of the slave, and to rescue 
the free colored man from his present degradation, will be fruitless. Should 
the present mighty combination of capitalists, merchants, and politicians, 
aided by a number of popular divines enlisted in their service, succeed in 
suppressing all manifestations of sympathy for the slave, all discussion of the 
abominations of slavery, all compassion for the fugitive, the North will 
undoubtedly be prepared to sanction the designs now entertained for the 
erection of New- Mexico, Utah, and Southern California into slave States, 
together with the annexation of Cuba, Hayti, and the Sandwich Islands, all 
to be added to the domain of the slaveholder. Let us never forget that 
duties arc ours, although events are not, and that, whatever may be the 
form in which it may please Divine Providence to punish our guilty land, 
he requires us not only to love mercy, but to do justice; a command we 
fail to obey, so long as we refuse to use lawful means to secure mercy and 
justice to others. Very many have no other opportunity of obeying this 
command, in regard to the colored race, than by their pecuniary contribu- 
tions to the anti-slavery cause. The efforts of the A. and F. A. S. Society 
are now enfeebled by the exhausted state of their treasury. 

Friends and brethren, we appeal to you in behalf of the Society. In the 
language of Scripture, we exhort you to show your faith by your works. 
So fully aware are our enemies of the importance of influencing public 
opinion by the Press, that a paper has been established at the capital of 
our Republic for the single and avowed purpose of vindicating and uphold- 
ing human bondage. A large portion of the newspaper Press in our com- 
mercial cities is enlisted in the same unholy cause. Public rumor tells us, 
that a committee in the city of New-York, comprising many of its wealth- 
iest citizens, raised a fund of one hundred thousand dollars ; and knowing 
that opposition to slavery has its strongest fortress in the religious senti- 
ment, this committee has spread broadcast through the land multitudes of 
copies of pro-slavery sermons. While the votaries of Mammon, and the 
aspirants to political power and emolument, are thus active and zealous in 
supporting and extending a horrible and degrading despotism, to further 



14 

their own selfish and ambitious views, will not the friends of righteousness, 
justice, and mercy be up and doing? We beseech yon to reply by enroll- 
ing your names among the members of the A. and F. A. S. Society, and by 
speedy and liberal contributions to its treasury. 

David Thurston Congregational Minister, Vassalboro, Me. 

Samuel Fessenden, Portland, Me. 

tons Hutchinson Woodstock, Vt., Ex-Chief Justice. 

Laurence Brainaed St Albans, Vt 

i ii isles Fb inois Adams Quincy, .Mass. 

Samuel Osgood, D.D Pastor of the First Cong. Church, Springfield, Masa 

William C. Ch ^pin, Fall River, Mass. 

J. G. Forman Unitarian Cong. Minister, Nantucket, Mass. 

J. C. Wi i.m 1.1: Pastor of Congl. Church, Hopkinton, Mass. 

J. P. Williston Northampton, Ma 

John Plebponi Unitarian Congregational Minister, Medford, Mass. 

I', v\, i... i i I', u lee, Congregational Minister, Stockbridge, Mass. 

B vssett Stockbridge, Mass. 

W'ni i \m Whitney Stockbridge, Mass. 

\Y nil \m W. Patton Pastor of Fourth Cong Church, Hartford, Conn. 

Wn 1 1 \m .l\v Bedford, X. V. 

\V. W. Kv, R ts Paster of the Baptist Church, Wheatland, N Y. 

S. S. Jocelyn Pastorof First Cong. Church of Williamsburg, NY. 

John Chanet Ministerof the Free Will Baptist Denomination 

I). YV. Gbaham Pa-tor of the Free Will Baptist Church, Sullivan 

street, N Y. City, 

J. Waener, Williamsburg, N. Y. 

Lindley Mubbay Mooee, Rochester, X. Y. 

Harmon Kingsboei Stat en Island, NY. 

J. A. Paine, Ml) Albany, N.Y. 

William E. Whiting, New-York City. 

John Ranein, Brooklyn. N. Y. 

Li,w i- Tappan, Brooklyn, X. Y. 

A bthi a Tappan Belleville, N J. 

George Whippi e Belleville, N. J. 

C. D. Cleveland Philadelphia. 

aoADS, Blockley, Deai' Philadelphia, Pa. 

Chaeles A> i i Minister of the Methodist Protestant Church, 

Alleghany City, Pa. 

Chaeles l>. Boynton Pastor of Pine st. < '">'_ r . < Ihurch, Cincinnati, Ohio. 

.Ions Ranein Pastor of Second Presbj terian Church, Ripley , < I 

T. B. Hi n-oN Professorof Languages, Oberlin College, Ohio. 

Josm \ R. Gj wgs Member of Congress from Ohio. 

I- i.a\ i i Bascom Pastor Congl. Church, Galesburg, 111. 

Jonathan Blanchaed President of Knox College, 111. 

Chaeles Dueeee Member of I iongress from Wisconsin, 

J. IIu.ki.ow Washington City. 

John ( :. Fee Pastor Independent Congregational Church, CaLin 

i !r< ek, Lewis Co., Ky. 
Ellis Clizbe, Amsterdam 6T. "S 

New- York, May, 1852. 



15 



CONSTITUTION 

OF THE 

AMERICAN AND FOREIGN ANTI-SLAA T ERT SOCIETY. 



PREAMBLE. 

Whereas the Declaration of American Independence asserts that it is a self-evi- 
dent truth; " that all men are created equal, and that they are endowed by their 
Creator with certain unalienable rights — that among these are life, liberty, and the 
pursuit of happiness ;" and whereas this political axiom is based upon the Holy 
Scriptures, -which declare that God '-hath made of one blood all nations of men, to 
dwell on all the face of the earth," and which require all mankind to love their 
neighbors as themselves ; and whereas nearly three millions of the people of this 
country are held in slavery by their fellow-countrymen ; and whereas the practice 
of buving and selling human beings prevails to an alarming extent; and whereas 
every"man, irrespective of color, is entitled to equality of rights on the soil of his 
birth and residence; and whereas the prejudice against color, which exists in this 
country, is sinful in the sight of God, and should be immediately repented of ; and 
whereas no scheme of expatriation should be countenanced by any friend of man 
or God ; and whereas we owe it to the oppressed, to oppressors, to our country, to 
the world, and to God, to do all that is right, and lawfully in our power, to bring 
about the extinction of slavery and the slave-trade ; we do hereby agree, witli a 
prayerful reliance on the Divine aid, to form ourselves into a Society, to be governed 
by the following Constitution : — 

ARTICLE I. 

The name of this Association shall be the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery 
Society. 

article II. 

The objects of this Society shall be the entire extinction of slavery and the slave- 
trade ; and the equal security, protection, and improvement of the people of color. 

article III. 
The following are the fundamental principles of this Society : — That slaveholding 
and slavetrading are heinous >ins in the sight of God, and violations of the rights of 
man, and ought to be immediately abandoned ; that so long as slavery exists, there 
is no reasonable prospect of the annihilation of the slave-trade, and of extinguishing 
the sale and barter of human beings ; that the extinction of slavery and the slave- 
trade is to be attained by moral, religious, and pacific means ; that while the Society 
exacts no specific pledges as a condition of membership, it will urge on all the duty 
of exercising the political franchise against the election of any slaveholder, and in 
behalf of the enslaved; that the legislative action of government should be invoked 
to abolish slavery and the slave-trade, for the enfranchisement of free people of 
color, and to restrain the lawless from invading the rights of others ; and that no 
measures be resorted to by this Society, in the prosecution of these objects, but such 
as are in entire accordance with these principles. 

article rv. 
The Society will employ the following means, among others, to effect the aboli- 
tion of slavery and the slave-trade : 

1. They will circulate accurate information on the enormities of slavery and the 
slave-trade; furnish evidence to the inhabitants of the slaveholdiDg States, not only 
of the practicability and safety, but of the pecuniary advantage of free over slave 
labor; diffuse authentic intelligence respecting the results of emancipation in the 
West Indies and elsewhere ; open a correspondence with Abolitionists throughout 
the world, and encourage them in the prosecution of their objects, by all methods 
consistent with the principles of this Society. 

2. They will recommend the use of free grown produce, as far as practicable, in 
preference to slave-grown. 

3. They will urge upon all, and especially upon the ministry and Church of Christ, 






1G 

the duty of embracing every Btritable opportunity for exhibiting to slaveholders and 
Blavetraders, and their apologists, an abhorrence of the system which they uphold, 
and its utter incompatibility with the spirit of the Christian religion. 

ARTICLE \. 

Any person who consents to the principles and objects of this Society, and con- 
tributes annually to its funds, shall be a member of this Society ; and the payment 
of thirty dollars, at any one time, shall constitute an individual a member tor life. 

ARTICLE VI. 

The Society shall annually elect a President, two Vice Presidents, Secretaries, 
and a Treasurer ; and in case of a vacancy occurring from any cause, the Executive 
Committee shall have the power to till such vacancy. 

AR'ini.K VII. 

The Society shall annually elect an Executive Committee, of whom nine mem- 
bers, at Least, shall reside in the city of New- York, and vicinity ; and five, regularly 
convened, shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. 

This I shall have power to elect their own officers ; to fill all vacancies 

which may occur in their number; to call an annual meeting of the Society at New- 
York, or elsewhere, at which a report of their doings shall be made ; to transact, all 
the business of the Society in the intervals of the annual meetings; to convene spe- 
cial meetings of the Society, when necessary ; and to collect funds through their 
auxiliaries, or otherwise, according to their discretion. 

ARTICLE VIII. 

The meetings of this Society, for the transaction of business, shall consist of its 
officers, and such other men as may be sent as delegates. Each State or Territory 
Society, auxiliary to this, shall be entitled to send two delegates; and every local 
Association, (consisting of not less than fifty members,) whether auxiliary to the 
State or Territory Societies, or to this Society, shall be entitled to one delegate for 
every fifty members. 

ARTICLE IX. 

This Society shall invite and encourage the formation of Women's Auxiliary Anti- 
Slavery Seen ties, in furtherance of its objects, which Societies may be represented 
according to Article VIII. 

ARTICLE X. 

This Constitution may be amended at any annual meeting of this Society, by a 
vote of two thirds of the delegates present, provided the amendments proposed 
have been sul mitted, in writing, to the Executive Committee three months previ- 
ously. 

OFFI CERS. 
President. — Arthur Tatt-an. 

r,V, Presidents. — F. Julius Le MoYNEand William Jay. 
Corresponding Secretary — 1-> wis Tappan. 
Record' »<j Secretary. — J \in - McCunb Smith M.D. 
Treasurer. — William E. Whiting. 

■'//'•'. — Arthur Tappan, S. S. Joeelvn, William Jay, Lewis Tappan, 
William E. Whiting, Joshua Leavitt, S. E. Cornish, .lame- Wamev, Alexander Mac- 
donald, Arnold Buffum, George Whipple, Thomas Bitter, J. W. 0. Pennington, E. D. 
Culver, D. C. Lansing, Henry Belden, and A. N. Freeman. 



John A. Gray, Printer, 97 Ctirr, cor. Frankfort St., Nkw-York. 



011 898 791 V' 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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